The minor league season has been over for a few weeks now, but the final awards for September is just now coming in. Chattanooga Lookouts starting pitcher Andrew Abbott was rewarded for his efforts last month by being named as the Double-A Southern League Pitcher of the Month.
After a hot start to the season that saw Andrew Abbott dominate in Dayton and earn a promotion in mid-May to Double-A Chattanooga, Abbott had plenty of inconsistency after his first start with the Lookouts. But in the final month of the season he made three starts and found himself back in the “lock them down” mode. On September 6th he threw 5.0 shutout innings with four strikeouts against Birmingham. Five days later he faced the Barons again and once again tossed 5.0 shutout innings but this time he struck out nine batters. On the 17th he made his final start of the season. Back in Chattanooga he faced off against Tennessee and threw 6.0 shutout innings against the Smokies and struck out eight batters.
In total he allowed just seven hits and walked three batters in his 16.0 innings. The Lookouts lefty held opposing batters to a .143 batting average, a .222 on-base percentage , and a .163 slugging percentage as there was just one extra-base hit – a double – among the seven hits that he gave up.
The strong end of his season in September lowered his ERA on the year to 3.81 in his 25 games that spanned 118.0 innings. He allowed 100 hits on the year – eight home runs – and struck out 159 batters while walking 48.
For Chattanooga the win for Andrew Abbott gave them honors for two months in a row. Elly De La Cruz took home Player of the Month in the Southern League for August after he hit .355/.425/.688 with 19 extra-base hits and six stolen bases. Joe Boyle won Player of the Month in May in the High-A Midwest League.